Page 52 of Magical Mission
“All right,” I said. “Tell me everything.”
He sat up straighter, took a deep breath, and launched into it.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “Had too much apple crumble, and also I was worried that one of the new students might’ve tried to smuggle in a potion for wrinkle reduction, and those have been known to wreak havoc. Don’t ask, it’s a long story. Anyway, I figured I’d walk it off. You know. Just a quick lap through the east corridor.”
“Alone?”
He gave me a look. “Yes. Becausesomeoneneeded to be brave, and your dad was asleep and snoring like a clogged tuba.”
Accurate.
“So I’m walking,” he continued, “and I hear movement. Light footsteps. Two of them. Not like patrolling teachers. More like… wandering. Sneaking.”
My spine prickled.
“I peek over the balcony near the upper hall, and I see them. Two students. Just walking. Not talking. Middle of the night. And behind them,” he lowered his voice, “was a shadow.”
“A shadow?”
“Ashadow,” he confirmed. “Not theirs. Too tall. Too… weird. It wasn’t just following them. It waswiththem. And it moved wrong.”
My mind began spinning. “Wrong how?”
He made a vague swirling gesture. “It glided. And it stretched. And when they turned a corner, it turned after them, but not with their movement. Like it was attached, but not part of them. It was… watching.”
“Did the students seem aware?”
“That’s the worst part.” He looked up at me, wide-eyed. “They didn’t flinch. Didn’t turn around. Didn’t even seem toseeit. Or they didn’t need toseeit because they knew it was with them.”
Cold settled into my bones.
Twobble glanced around as if the walls might be listening. “I wanted to tell you immediately, but Nova caught me pacing in a hall and demanded I spill. She told me to wait. She didn’t want to alarm you since it was such a big day for you. But Maeve…” He looked up at me. “Iamalarmed.”
So was I.
“Can you describe the students?” I asked carefully.
He wrinkled his nose, thinking. “I haven’t seen them before. One might have had blonde hair, or maybe silver. Hard to tell with just moonlight. The other had dark hair. But I don’t remember seeing them on our first night. But there were a lot whom I haven’t met.”
“What if someone let that shadow in?” he whispered. “What if there’s a spy?”
The word hit me like a spark in dry brush.
A spy.
It wasn’t impossible.
The Academy had reopened after years of silence. We didn’t exactly screen for secret allegiances. Some of these women came from corners of magic I hadn’t even known existed before now.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves, but thank you,” I said. “For telling me. For trusting me.”
“Of course I trust you,” he said, indignant again. “You gave me my own room and let me have my own snack drawer.”
I smiled, heart full even as my mind churned.
A shadow that didn’t belong.
Students wandering after dark.
